The Netherlands

Much of the debate, right now, is focused on the optimal energy mix between fossil fuels and clean energies like solar and wind. Important as this debate is, a potentially bigger and broader issue we face in Europe is creating 'new' flexible systems and infrastructure for clean energy which is much less transportable than fossil fuels.

Leaving home is always going to be hard, be it a semester-long escapade or a few years of study, being thrown into a completely foreign country is terrifying. But it will be the best decision you will ever make in your life, as it is mine.

Has FIFA's latest offering really been the free flowing celebration of the game that the pundits and wider media would have us believe? ... has there been anything even close to epic encounters such as Brazil v Italy in '82? or France v Germany that same year?

A balanced view will allow us to be better at thinking about the crisis. After all if we only see our southern neighbours as burden, we are not only losing half the equation to solving the Eurozone crisis; we are also missing out on most of the intelligence.

Do you remember golliwogs? Those black rag dolls with frizzy hair and red lips? You probably do, although most golliwog toys and references have succumbed to a UK-wide extermination process in the last few decades. Well, the toy hasn't exactly done much to promote racial equality and tolerance: terms like 'golliwog' and 'wog' entered the slang lexicon as racial slurs.

One of the most interesting things that I have experienced from visiting a number of cohousing projects within the Netherlands is the variation in how both 'centraal wonen' projects and 'woongroeps' are organised.

The future shape of global healthcare provision is a major issue that we all need to grapple with. Its importance is highlighted by the depth of divisions when health care reform becomes the centre of political focus.

The electorate chose stability, budgetary discipline and a broadly pro-Europe course over the populist anti-austerity and anti-Europe rhetoric presented by both the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) and the left-wing Socialist Party (SP).